The first Special Olympics World Games drew about 1,000 US and Canadian competitors to Chicago for an event designed to celebrate athletes with intellectual disabilities.
“It was probably a little on the small side, but it had an unbelievable amount of enthusiasm,” said Olympic icon Rafer Johnson, who welcomed those competitors in 1968.
Nearly a half-century later, the games is to bring about 6,500 athletes from 165 nations to Los Angeles this week to take part in 25 sports at venues across the city, and Johnson, who won a gold medal in the decathlon at the 1960 Olympic Games, is set to welcome athletes again.
Athletes aged 8 to 71 are to compete in soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis, track, roller skating and other sports over nine days. About 500,000 people are expected to attend the events, including Olympic gold medalists swimmer Michael Phelps and diver Greg Louganis, Chinese basketball great Yao Ming and even US first lady Michelle Obama, who is to open the event on Saturday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, site of the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics.
“It is going to be the largest event Los Angeles has hosted since the 1984 Summer Olympics,” said Patrick McClenahan, president and chief executive of LA2015, the non-profit organization in charge of the Games.
Athletes are to be placed in divisions based on age and skill level so, for example, a 10-year-old sprinter does not wind up running against a 25-year-old. While the top three finishers are to receive gold, silver and bronze medals, everyone is to receive a participant’s ribbon and a chance to stand on the victory platform.
The games were created by former US president John F. Kennedy’s sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, as a way of allowing people with intellectual disabilities to enjoy fuller lives. After years of holding a smaller version in her backyard, she took them international in 1968.
From that humble beginning, they have become much more, LA2015 board member Dustin Plunkett said.
“It is about life-saving experiences for people. It is about learning to be the best person you can be,” said Plunkett, a former Special Olympics athlete.
Plunkett, who has a cognitive disability, recalls growing up bored and being called names until he started playing sports.
A coach got him into a Southern California Special Olympics program, and over the next 19 years, Plunkett, now 34, went from athlete to coach to Special Olympics global ambassador. This year, he designed the uniforms for 30,000 volunteers and is to provide color commentary for ESPN.
He is the perfect example of what the Special Olympics, with its credo of being the best one can be, allows a person to accomplish, McClenahan said.
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